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Monday, March 02, 2015

Mohammed Emwazi and Tony Blair go to school

Nicky Morgan, Education Secretary, has ordered an investigation into the school attended by “Jihadi John” after it emerged a third Islamist fighter was taught at the same north London academy.

Choukri Ellekhlifi, a contemporary of Jihadi John at Quintin Kynaston academy, was killed fighting with terrorists in Syria in 2013 after joining up with an al-Qaeda group.

The disclosure comes after The Telegraph reported that another former pupil at the St John’s Wood school, Mohammed Sakr, had died fighting for al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al-Qaeda in Somalia.

Their deaths and the fact Mohammed Emwazi, the true identity of ‘Jihadi John’, attended the school, will raise questions over what measures had been put in place to tackle the radicalisation of Muslim teenagers.

Quentin Kynaston? That rings a bell.

Sure enough, I find that I blogged about an ill-fated visit to Quentin Kynaston school, as it then was, by Tony Blair in 2006.

A deputy head wandered about, trying to persuade the children to go home. He had a walkie-talkie and a badge. In my day deputy heads had pipes and leather patches on their elbows. This guy looked like a bouncer.